FIRST IN SCORE—NRCC NAMES 17 ‘CONTENDERS’ TO YOUNG GUNS PROGRAM: The National Republican Congressional Committee is naming 17 House GOP candidates as “contenders” in its Young Guns program, singling them out as top recruits and giving them an additional level of support. “Contenders” are the second level of candidates for the Young Guns program: they are all, per a release, “on the path to developing a mature and competitive campaign operation” and are running for seats that look favorable for the GOP. On the list: French Hill (AR-02), Martha McSally (AZ-02), Dan Logue (CA-03), Doug Ose (CA-07), Elizabeth Emken (CA-07), Igor Birman (CA-07), Brian Nestande (CA-36), Mimi Walters (CA-45), Carl DeMaio (CA-52), Bob Dold (IL-10), Darlene Senger (IL-11), Mike Bost (IL-12), Bobby Schilling (IL-17), Richard Tisei (MA-06), Stewart Mills (MN-08), Mia Love (UT-04) and Evan Jenkins (WV-03). The NRCC has named 36 candidates total to its Young Guns program this cycle. One interesting note: the NRCC has named three candidates in CA-07, the race against California Rep. Ami Bera. An NRCC aide said the program is open to any candidate who applies, and that the committee doesn’t take sides in primaries.

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THE INVISIBLE PRIMARY: GOP PREPS AS CHRISTIE STUMBLES: POLITICO’s Alex Burns and Maggie Haberman report on the early maneuvering by potential 2016 GOP presidential candidates: “The Republican presidential field is aflutter with behind-the-scenes activity even at this preliminary stage, giving early shape to a race that has been defined in public by a handful of outsized media personalities, including [New Jersey Gov. Chris] Christie, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Christie’s ‘Bridgegate’ stumbles have now thrown the race wide open: Strategists for likely and potential candidates all see the Garden State Republican as deeply and perhaps fatally compromised. Reform-minded Republican governors are eyeing the race more eagerly, thanks to the void opened by the Fort Lee traffic scandal. Others in the field, like [Florida Sen. Marco] Rubio, could find their nuts-and-bolts preparatory work all the more valuable in view of Christie’s woes. There is no shortage of ideological and strategic fault lines in the Republican lineup, but the most important developing division may be the one separating these two groups of candidates: the prepared and the unprepared.” http://goo.gl/wsp0gc

CAMPAIGN PRO, YOUR GUIDE TO THE PERMANENT CAMPAIGN launches Wednesday, April 9 on POLITICO Pro with real-time news and information on more than 60 House, Senate and gubernatorial races, including an enhanced version of Morning Score, state-of-the-race analyses, rankings and polls. Interested in subscribing to Campaign Pro? E-mail us: scr.info@politicopro.com

Good Wednesday morning and welcome to Morning Score. As always, send your tips, thoughts, and suggestions to eschultheis@politico.com or tweet them to @emilyrs.

FIRST LOOK—MOVEON ENDORSES MERKLEY, BELLOWS: The progressive group MoveOn is backing Maine Senate candidate Shenna Bellows and Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley today, its first general-election endorsements of the cycle. “Both Bellows and Merkley are proven progressive champions, and our country needs their voices standing up to powerful corporate and 1% interests in the Senate,” Ilya Sheyman, executive director of MoveOn.org Political Action, says in a statement. (Bellows also got the endorsement of the DSCC Tuesday.) http://goo.gl/gKL2sJ

BRALEY UNDER FIRE FOR GRASSLEY ‘FARMER’ COMMENT: Iowa Senate candidate Bruce Braley got the America Rising treatment Tuesday, with the GOP research group releasing a clip of Braley disparaging Iowa GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, as “a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school.” The comments immediately went viral, earning headlines both inside and outside the Beltway and criticism from Republicans. The RNC created a video using the comments to paint Braley as “out of touch” ( http://goo.gl/11eFme), and GOP Senate candidates Joni Ernst and Mark Jacobs both released statements criticizing Braley. The Democrat eventually apologized, saying in a statement that he fully appreciates the value of Iowa farms. “My parents both grew up on Iowa farms during the Great Depression. It deeply influenced who they are and who I am, and gave me a profound appreciation for what farmers do for the world,” he said. The video is a setback for Braley, who cleared the Democratic field and otherwise was seen as having a slight advantage in the race; it won’t be long before the footage shows up in a GOP attack ad. http://goo.gl/mI1zmM

SCOTT CAMPAIGN WRESTLES WITH EMAIL SCANDAL: POLITICO’s Alex Burns reports on the latest tumult in Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s campaign: “Mike Fernandez, a Florida health care executive and prolific political donor, sent a series of emails in February to Melissa Sellers, the operative tasked with leading Scott’s reelection bid. In one explosive message, reported earlier Tuesday by the Miami Herald, Fernandez raised acute concerns about Scott staffers having used 'culturally insensitive' language and mocked Mexican accents in the presence of a Fernandez aide. The Scott campaign has denied that any such incident occurred. In a second, previously unreported email, Fernandez complained bitterly that the Scott campaign was cutting him off from a governor he had committed to support. Fernandez noted that Sellers would not allow him to take home a copy of campaign survey questions and that a memo Fernandez wrote for the governor’s approval never reached Scott’s desk. ... The charged missives from a deep-pocketed GOP donor are a vivid illustration of sharp tensions within the team of one of the 2014 cycle’s most endangered governors.” http://goo.gl/bafSCQ

THE AD MCCONNELL JUST COULDN’T GET RIGHT: What was otherwise a regular web video from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign became a day-long headache for his staffers when an observer noticed it featured footage of Duke basketball—not the University of Kentucky—celebrating after winning a game. The ad was taken down, then reposted with the correct footage—then taken down again over concerns about violating NCAA rules for endorsing candidates. “Earlier today, issues related to the use of NCAA images in a web video created by an outside vendor for our campaign were brought to our attention. The video was taken down immediately after questions were raised,” said McConnell campaign spokeswoman Allison Moore, adding that steps had been taken with the vendor to make sure a similar mistake doesn’t happen again. “It was our intention to honor our great Kentucky basketball traditions. Our campaign apologizes for any inconvenience this may have caused.” http://goo.gl/KgwC4D

CHART OF THE WEEK—CMAG/Kantar Media compares ad spending by Americans for Prosperity on the right to that of Senate Majority PAC and House Majority PAC on the left—and finds that in many key states and races, AFP’s ads are appearing vastly more often: http://goo.gl/TU24T5

SANTORUM’S BUSY IOWA SCHEDULE: Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is in the Hawkeye State today to attend a fundraiser for GOP Secretary of State Matt Schultz’s IA-03 campaign—but the rest of his schedule looks a lot like someone who’s planning for 2016. Per a Santorum aide, the GOPer will do a handful of Iowa media interviews, including taping an appearance on “Iowa Press,” stopping by WHO radio and doing some local TV. He’s also meeting with the advisors who worked on his Iowa 2012 campaign. This is Santorum’s second trip to Iowa after the 2012 election: he visited last year to go to the state fair, a summit hosted by the Family Leader, and a Lyon County GOP fundraiser.

DIMINISHED EXPECTATIONS FOR BIDEN IN NEW HAMPSHIRE: The Washington Post reports: “As he made his first second-term trip to the state that will hold the first-in-the-nation primary in 2016, it was easy to imagine [Vice President] Joseph R. Biden running a third time for president — schmoozing, quoting his mom and combining his hardscrabble political persona with an argument for why he should get a chance to build on President Obama’s policies. Yet the diminished expectations he faces were impossible to ignore. … In polls, the vast majority of voters say they back Hillary Rodham Clinton as the Democratic nominee, and a surprisingly large number say they would never consider Biden.” http://goo.gl/KW3gTk

SPEAKING OF THE GRANITE STATE—Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is heading there this May: he’ll speak at the Rockingham County GOP dinner on May 9. http://goo.gl/7bfwNO

FILING DEADLINES IN MISSOURI, SOUTH DAKOTA: In Missouri, no Democrats filed to run against Tom Schweich, the sitting GOP state auditor general—which is important in the context of 2016, when he’s considered a likely gubernatorial candidate ( http://goo.gl/pjBWJd). In South Dakota, Rick Weiland is now officially Democrats’ sole candidate for Senate. Also running are independent former Sen. Larry Pressler and Republicans Mike Rounds, Larry Rhoden, Stace Nelson and Jason Ravnsborg. http://goo.gl/jhavSO

ACROSS THE MAP—Quick takes from races around the country:

SENATE—

-MI-Sen: Democrat Gary Peters called on his GOP opponent, Terri Lynn Land, to pledge to keep both candidates’ children out of whatever negative campaigning may happen in the race going forward. (Land hasn’t made any such attack, but Michigan Right to Life said on its website that Peters wants to keep abortion “accessible and cheap for his daughters.”) http://goo.gl/69No5v

-MT-Sen: Montana’s Democratic Party was breaking with tradition earlier this month when it quietly endorsed now-Sen. John Walsh for Senate, over fellow Democrats former Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger and rancher Dirk Adams. http://goo.gl/upZWyN

-MN-Sen: The conservative group American Encore launched a 60-second TV ad hitting Sen. Al Franken, part of a $250,000 ad buy. http://goo.gl/5ijbJX

HOUSE—

-AZ-01, -02: House Speaker John Boehner will campaign in Arizona for GOP candidates Andy Tobin and Martha McSally. http://goo.gl/p7urmz

-CO-06: GOP Rep. Mike Coffman said Tuesday he no longer supports “personhood” policies, which grant fertilized human eggs the same legal rights as a person. The shift comes after GOP Senate candidate Cory Gardner announced last week that he no longer supported the policy. http://goo.gl/bv6Ex8

-HI-01: The International Longshore and Warehouse Union endorsed Democratic state Sen. President Donna Mercado Kim in the crowded Democratic primary. http://goo.gl/LMi98m

-TX-04: The Club for Growth and the Madison Project on Tuesday endorsed John Ratcliffe in his primary runoff against GOP incumbent Rep. Ralph Hall. http://goo.gl/CmP5qC

GOVERNORS—

-NM-Gov: GOP Gov. Susana Martinez has double-digit leads over all her Democratic opponents, according to a new PPP poll. http://goo.gl/uGUIbe

-TX-Gov: Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis launched the "Act Like a Texan" clock on her campaign website Tuesday, "to hold Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott accountable for his silence on the issue of equal pay for equal work." http://goo.gl/whWipH

CODA—QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm, so when I get to Washington, I’ll know how to cut pork.” —Iowa GOP Senate candidate Joni Ernst, in her first TV ad of the cycle http://goo.gl/xLDWNZ. (Jimmy Fallon talked about it on his show last night as well: http://goo.gl/bBJVR5)

About The Author

Emily Schultheis is a national political reporter and author of POLITICO Pro’s daily Morning Score tipsheet. She joined POLITICO as a 2010 summer intern, then filed stories on the 2010 Pennsylvania Senate and gubernatorial races and the 2012 election throughout her senior year at the University of Pennsylvania. Since arriving full-time at POLITICO in summer 2011, Schultheis spent the 2012 cycle writing for the “Burns & Haberman” blog and traveling the country with different presidential candidates. She took over Morning Score in January 2013.

In summer 2013, Schultheis was one of ten American journalists selected for the Arthur F. Burns Fellowship, an international reporting program for young journalists. She spent two months covering the German election in Berlin for POLITICO and SPIEGEL International.

Schultheis began covering politics for The Daily Pennsylvanian, Penn’s student-run newspaper, in 2008, trailing Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton throughout Philadelphia during the lead-up to the Pennsylvania primary. Her work has also appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia City Paper and UWIRE’s Youth Vote ‘08 blog. She graduated summa cum laude from Penn with a degree in English literature in May 2011.

Schultheis, originally from the San Francisco Bay area, now lives in Arlington.